Our architect went to the local Moobaan office for the building permit. They said it is all fine, we just need 20.000 cash and handed over somewhere. She did and was told it would be all done soon in the first week of April when another superior would come in and set the last signature but yes all was fine.Two weeks later she called but nothing was done because the guy went on holiday instead of coming to the office. (huh)Then at the end of April she called again just to hear that the guy came in, now he demands 60.000 and wants to talk to the builder and refuses to talk to the architect or to the owners.

Thainees at its best. We laugh and cry at the same time but we now need a strategy to solve this.

First of all, we are trying to find out if there is a common 'rule' and what the costs involved should be. My wife says it is probably a country wide government law. IF anybody knows this, please share.

Talking only to the builder: my guess is to hear how much the total build will be and get a share of that money too. We don't even have chosen the builder yet. We also know the build will take two years and we need to renew the permit yearly.

If we refuse the whole thing, he might give trouble every year. On the other hand we are not planning to 'fund' his new car and raise our costs without limits. Next year it might be the same story.

Another option is to go to an anti corruption office and see if they can deal with it. Of course they have been very careful not to leave any trail but we could record the next phone calls. The side effect might be that we get some nasty people at the door when we start living there.

The Thai way is probably pay and see if we have some family working in that field or area and negotiate a bit down.

We don't mind paying people for the work done but this gets a bit extreme. It also seems they feel strong because we got an inexperienced nice female architect.Should we pay them a visit with a lawyer and see if he gets scared?

zebrafilm wrote:Thainees at its best. We laugh and cry at the same time but we now need a strategy to solve this.

In my opinion there are two ways to solve this, the first is to engage a lawyer and have him draft a letter to the Consumer Protection Agency (fairly trustworthy),the second is to go and file a Police complaint, which is what I would do, and then go and slap the Mooban with a copy of the Police complaint and take your lawyer with you and finally take the Police complaint to Crime Suppression Division and tell them you are not getting any satisfaction and will they take over the investigation.I know it's not the Thai way, but from what I have read about the junta's Complaint's Centre, you'll just get a bigger run around there. If I was in any other country but Thailand I'd give the whole thing to the media and let them run with it, but as the Thai media have no Investigative Journalists that's a waste of time.Just remember, they are public servants and are supposed to serve the public. Get angry like I do, it gets results.The cost for approval is 180 baht, paid at the front office with a receipt.

Maybe it is a good idea let your wife/girlfriend check out with other who have made house in your area recently.If they have paid anything or not.When we made our house in Satuk/Buriram 3 years ago there was no payment involved.I had drawn a plan for the house myself but a man at obator made builders plan for payment of thb 5.000,-When my wife asked of we needed any kind of official approvement they said "not yet-not so developed area" We made our house just opposite to obator so they had full control of the development.We invited some of them to the house warming party, the head man made a speach saying he was happy with the build, and heard nothing after

Legally, here's where you stand, (which your architect should know). Building permits are issued after the plans are submitted to the Mooban Engineer. He is the approving authority, nobody else. As soon as he stamps every page of the plans you pay 180 baht and get the official receipt/permit and then have 12 months in which to build. There is no other fee.File a police complaint.

Roger Ramjet wrote:Legally, here's where you stand, (which your architect should know). Building permits are issued after the plans are submitted to the Mooban Engineer. He is the approving authority, nobody else. As soon as he stamps every page of the plans you pay 180 baht and get the official receipt/permit and then have 12 months in which to build. There is no other fee.File a police complaint.

About as good an advise as you’d get from a multi million lawyer and it’s free to boot..